Iris
by Tsuchi
Summary: A song fic for Icheb and Q2. Contains SLASH! Rated R for graphic sex and character death.


Disclaimer: Star Trek and its characters do not belong to me, nor does the song. 'Ashke' is a reference to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, so I don't own that either, I just think the word is cool.

A/N: A little song-ficlet of Q2 and Icheb. Contains SLASH, rated R for graphic sex. Marie Sheppard, this is for you.

Iris

"_And I'd give up forever to touch you,_

_Cause I know that you feel me somehow_

_You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, _

_And I don't want to go home right now."_

Q2 lay back, contented for once, beside Icheb. The former Borg was sleeping soundly, occasionally stirring in peaceful dreams of who knew what. Q2 could easily find out what his lover was dreaming, but the mystery gave him something to think of, while he waited for the Brunali to wake up. Qs did not dream, so whenever Icheb fell asleep, Q2 would simply watch him, letting his eyes roam over the cadet's body.

It was in these moments when Q2 would wonder how he had been Icheb's first. Was the universe blind? How could it be that he, a Q who would not normally look at a mortal, for all his boasting, was the only one to see Icheb's almost impossible beauty?

Q2 carefully examined the sleeping boy, lying in a pool of sheets beside him. The strong curve of his jaw, the way his dark brown hair fell on to the pillow, the way his shoulder twitched in response to some stimulus in his dreams, the way his eyes, hidden behind pale eyelids, and dark eyelashes, would flicker back and forth – Q2 loved it all.

It had taken forever to convince Icheb that sexual reproduction was not the only point of relationships, and then to show him that having a relationship was not 'irrelevant', or 'inefficient', or anything other than pure, simple love.

Q2 reached out a hand, almost not daring, to touch the Brunali. He hovered for several seconds, not moving, just wanting to test what some other Q – namely Amanda– had told him about mortals. Icheb stirred slightly, but didn't wake up, a smile crossing his light pink lips.

"Q-ball…" he muttered, snuggling into the covers of the quarters' bed, his hands cushioning his head. Q2 smiled, and let his hand drop to the bed.

_Q._ Q2's father's voice sounded in Q2's head. _Q, I need to talk to you._ Q2 sighed, knowing that his father wasn't too far away, and had probably waited until this moment, this exact nanosecond to call him.

Q2 lingered a moment longer, brushing a strand of Icheb's hair back to its rightful place. He leaned down over the sleeping cadet, willing a whisper of breath caress the mortal's neck. "I have to go." He whispered, and then withdrew from the bed. The effort was not necessary, but Q2, at least, preferred to give Icheb some warning, before disappearing to wherever his powers took him.

Icheb blinked, registering what the young Q had said, and then sat up slowly. He smiled slightly, not seeming to be aware of how the fine sheets slipped down to pool around his knees.

Q laughed a little, seeing the former Borg's expression when he realized that he was fully exposed. Icheb got up, abandoning the blankets in favor of the uniform that he began to don.

"_And all I can taste is this moment,_

_And all I can breathe is your life_

_Cause sooner or later it's over_

_I just don't want to miss you tonight"_

Q2 snapped his fingers, the frown on his features seeming out of place. Icheb wasn't back from classes yet, Q2 could tell; there was nothing screaming 'Icheb!' to his senses.

Q2 sat on the bed, crossing both legs and arms, and waited. His father hadn't wanted a social visit: Q had wanted to discuss the problems inherit to falling in love with humans. More specifically, Q wanted to warn his son that Icheb was eventually going to die.

Q2 knew that; of course he did. He just didn't want to think about it. He never wanted to think about- and therefore he did the only thing he could: he didn't.

Q2's Icheb sense began singing sweet hallelujahs at the same time as the doors opened. He smoothed the creases out of his forehead, and schooled his expression into an exuberant smile. He gave three seconds for Icheb to put down anything he was carrying, and then leapt to his feet.

"Ichi!" He pulled the startled Brunali into a tight embrace, kissing his hair with a tenderness shown to no one else.

"Q2?" A soft snap of the fingers and they were on the bed, another and Icheb was down to his Captain Kirk boxers. Q2 didn't bother keeping any clothes on himself. "Q2." Icheb repeated more firmly.

"I just don't want to be alone tonight." Q2 whispered into the Brunali's chest. He could feel Icheb sigh, and then soft, uncalloused fingers were under his chin, gently forcing his eyes to meet Icheb's.

"You won't be." Icheb wrapped a single arm around Q2's body, lowering the Q to the bed sheets below. Q2 let Icheb take the lead, as he did every time they made love. Icheb kissed his lover softly, first on the lips, then trailing from his jaw to chest. He trailed his fingers over Q2's stomach, bringing forth sounds that shot fire to the pit of his stomach.

For just a second, Q2 wasn't paying attention. In that fraction of a moment, he let go of his heritage, forsaking, for the next few hours, powers that could have given him a thousand Ichebs, none of whom he wanted. He delved deep within the human body he had created from nothing, letting the sensations of loving and being loved wrap around him, and through him. He was dimly aware of someone mewling and moaning with his body's voice.

Then the hands were gone, and Q2 whimpered at the loss. He opened one eye, and breathed in relief when he saw Icheb was merely removing his boxers, and getting the lubricant. Then one hand was trailing over him again, and Icheb's tongue took the other's place, leaving burning cold spots all over his body. Q2 moaned louder, feeling his cock aching for being left out.

A wet, cold digit made its presence known at his entrance, and Q2 tried to relax as it slipped in. It was a disturbing presence, compared to the warmth of the rest of his body, and as a second and then third digit joined it, Q2 knew pain while he was stretched. Of course, Icheb's finger's warmed, and the pain left, and then Icheb was stroking him inside as well as out, and striking that place- OH- that place that Q2 hadn't even known was included in the human anatomy until Icheb touched it that first time.

Pain again; the blunt head of Icheb's cock was at his entrance, pushing it's way in. Q2 let out another whimper, and Icheb soothed him with nonsense words and soft kisses. And then Icheb was moving- in and out- and Q2 wiggled until Icheb was striking that spot when he pushed in. Stars brighter than any Q2 had ever seen flared behind his eyes, and he had to open them to keep from being blinded, but he didn't really see anything anyway.

He was panting, a ragged sound that was Icheb echoed. The Brunali's forehead was resting against Q2's shoulder, and his breath exhaled every time he pounded into Q2, and then the stars would flare again, and then- "Icheb!"

Q2 cried out, his erection pouring fluid between two already slick bodies. A muscle spasmed on Icheb's face, and he, too, climaxed crying out his lover's name. Icheb's arms shook for the few seconds that he took to reclaim his breath, and lower himself to Q2's side.

Q2 took those few seconds to reclaim his powers, and cleaned away the mess. Icheb's arms snaked around him, and the Brunali whispered 'You will never be alone' just before sleep took him away to sweet dreams.

Q2 knew, in that moment, that Icheb told the truth.

"_And I don't want the world to see me_

_Cause I don't think that they'd understand_

_When everything's made to be broken,_

_I just want to you to know who I am"_

_Icheb was well aware of the swaggering bunch of cadets following him. He always knew when had this particular dream. It didn't matter that he couldn't see them, that their faces were ones he knew he would never see outside of his dreams- his parents, the Bajoran woman who had lost her husband, survivors of Wolf 359- they were following him, and he knew why._

_They were following him, because he was Borg, because he was never truly alone in his thoughts, because the optical implant could only come from the Collective. They were following him because he embodied everything they hated. He had reached the café at the end of the Parisian street; he was going to stop, and ask the woman in the red jacket which way it was to the academy. _

_The woman would be Seven, but a Seven without implants, a Seven would had never been assimilated, and yet remembered the terror of it, remembered the years of being part of the collective, and hated Borg all the more for the memories._

_The woman in the red jacket screamed, and Icheb shied away from it. The crew of Voyager was there then, looking up from newspapers, and emerging from the crowd of cadets following him. They pulled out phasers, and fired. Icheb was hit twice; pain searing through his arm and left leg. His shields absorbed the third shot, and a voice that could not have been his own and yet was was citing a well-known verse: 'We are the Borg, you will be Assimilated. Resistance is Futile.'_

_And then his friends, his family, his peers, all fell and were assimilated. _

'_Ashke.' Q2 was left standing alone in front of the Borg Icheb. One of Five reached forward, torn between his love, and his directives. Q2 solved the problem by taking his shoulder and shaking him awake. _

Icheb looked up at the Q, and gave a wavering smile. "I dreamed I was a Borg again."

Q2 smiled back. "I know, Ashke. That's why I woke you up."

"_And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming_

_Or the moment of truth in your lies_

_When everything feels like the movies,_

Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive" 

"What will you do when he dies?" Amanda asked. She had arrived late that afternoon to find Q2 patiently awaiting Q2's return. There was no question of who 'he' was.

"Move on, I suppose. Mortals die every second. It's not like I can stop him." A question, hidden in his eyes. Amanda shook her head, both an answer and a comment.

"I don't think you will. Love is a powerful thing, even more powerful than Q. For all that you could halt the movement of the Galaxy, you can't stop feeling. I think you'll greive; and either healing will come very slowly, or not at all, and you'll ask the Continuum to make you mortal just so you can die." Amanda said flatly.

Q2 wanted to protest, really he did. He just wasn't sure if it would be the truth, and if it wasn't, if either of them would believe him. All the energy he had was gone. He was saved from having to answer by Icheb's arrival. The Brunali wrapped his arms around the Q, holding him tightly, and asked no questions.

Q2 wasn't sure he could have answered any.

"_And I don't want the world to see me_

_Cause I don't think that they'd understand_

_When everything's made to be broken,_

I just want to you to know who I am" 

If there was one day every man, woman, and child on every planet of every Galaxy dreaded, it was June 3rd. This, if nothing else, did Kiera Wildman know. Kiera was a Cadet at Starfleet Academy. She was also Naomi Wildman's daughter, and therefore knew the reason why.

Today was June 3rd, and classes had been cancelled on account of the sudden bouts of depression and sickness everyone had suddenly developed. Sickbays were flooded, Riza had shut down; even Ferenginar had halted business transactions. Kiera alone walked between the carefully kept rows of hedges.

Without the multitude of students blocking the area, she reached the Hill in short order. She was the last to arrive, and went to pay her respects. Everyone here was a descendant of the original Crew of Voyager. The Doctor was telling the story to a group of small children. To his left was a grave, long grown over. The gravestone had two names on it, and Kiera traced the letters carefully.

She knew the story, and the bittersweet ending that it had. Three minutes before Icheb died, the first Q to ever be born had gone to the Continuum. He had begged for a million years to be released from immortality, and finally been granted it. Arriving back two seconds after he left, he had died in Icheb's arms.

A romantic story, to be sure, if it was true. But whether it was true or not, Kiera knew Q2 must have lived for at least a second after Icheb, because every June 3rd, a depression like none ever felt at any other time descended upon the universe.

The Doctor, having been present at both deaths, had had Icheb's last words carved on the shared tombstone. _Icheb, Q2. You will never be alone._


End file.
